Everything about Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has been, in a word, big. Big cast. Big budget. Big cameras. Big canvas. Big buzz. And now that the Oscar-winning Oppenheimer filmmaker’s Homeric epic is finally playing in cinemas, this outsized trend has continued with a massive opening weekend for the movie at the global box office. Per Variety‘s reporting, Nolan’s newest blockbuster — the first movie ever shot entirely on IMAX cameras — has set sail with a Cyclops-dwarfing $264 million worldwide open.
To put the first frame performance of The Odyssey into context, the movie — which follows Matt Damon’s Trojan War hero Odysseus and his gruelling, ten-year journey home to his wife (Anne Hathaway) and son (Tom Holland) — took $124.5 million from 3,919 cinemas stateside this weekend, marking Nolan’s best American open since The Dark Knight Rises ($160m) back in 2012. What’s more, The Odyssey has also landed Nolan the biggest global opening of his career (not adjusted for inflation), towering over The Dark Knight Rises ($249m), The Dark Knight ($198m), and Oppenheimer ($180m). An impressive feat for an r-rated adaptation of a 3,000 year old poem.
Given that Nolan’s latest reportedly cost an eye-watering $250 million to make, and another $125 million in marketing, the Brit auteur will surely be breathing a sigh of relief at his latest epic’s expectation-exceeding first weekend takings. Then again, The Odyssey‘s success probably shouldn’t come as any surprise to filmgoers or filmmakers. Not only is Nolan one of the highest profile directors working today (and one riding the post-Oppenheimer Oscars success wave), but recent trends in cinemagoers seeking out celluloid cinema, near-universal critical acclaim and positive word-of-mouth, and that constellation-level starry cast have driven Odyssey hype into overdrive. And with Spider-Man: Brand New Day still almost a fortnight away and IMAX screenings still packed out for weeks to come, there’s no reason to suspect The Odyssey‘s box office, well, odyssey will come to an end anytime soon.
After the recent less-than-stellar performances of DC’s Supergirl, Disney’s Moana, and Illumination’s profitable yet franchise-lowest grossing Minions & Monsters at the box office, this statement-making box office open for the latest Christopher Nolan movie will go some way to helping ensure 2026 delivers Hollywood’s biggest summer at the cinema since 2019. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’re just off to go and get the next stamp on our Odyssey format punchcard. Hey, you don’t have to face Sirens and monster whirlpools to undertake an odyssey, y’know?
